4D and Saxon Weald
In 2017, Saxon Weald set out to find a solution which would save costs and meet their managed IT needs. They chose 4D Data Centres’ Gatwick facility, situated close to Saxon Weald’s headquarters in Horsham, and were provided with a quick and easy onboarding process aligned with the need for a fast turnaround for their IT migration project.
“Having a dedicated account manager as a single point of contact, as well as a responsive support team, has made life easier for us and allowed us to better focus on our core business.”
Mark Sims, IT Technical Manager, Saxon Weald.
About Saxon Weald
Established in 2000, Saxon Weald is a housing association managing approximately 6,000 homes across Sussex and Hampshire. They provide affordable rented and shared ownership homes for individuals and families, as well as properties exclusively for the over 55s. They are a not-for-profit company, with the money made from rents being re-invested in the management, maintenance and building of homes. Saxon Weald is a registered charity and is regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing.
The Challenge
Saxon Weald were previously using an on-site bare metal disaster recovery solution. This took the form of tape data recovery where their environment would be reinstalled onto their hardware by a third party, and meant considerable time would be taken recovering data in the event of a disaster. This setup had them manage IT infrastructure in-house, covering valuable office space and adding further financial costs from running and maintaining their equipment.
The new solution needed to give them greater control, be more resilient and give better return times through data recovery. Having reviewed all the options, it became clear that repurposing their own equipment and colocating in a data centre was much more cost effective than their current setup or options such as using a fully managed hosting environment.
The Results
Saxon Weald now have a more advanced and efficient Disaster Recovery solution. With their migrated infrastructure conveniently isolated from the rest of the network, this ensures they are continually up and running within the environment even in the case of a local incident.
Having a dedicated account manager and support services such as remote hands makes life easier for the IT department and allows Saxon Weald to better focus on their core business- this going hand in hand with a healthy partnership as the company grows with 4D.